Budget 2016: Federal Ministry Of Works, Power And Housing Appropriation Bill By Saatah Nubari

Welcome to the fifteenth piece in the #SaatahBudgetSeries. In this episode, I will be taking a look at the budget of the Federal Ministry of Works, Power and Housing. Before I begin, I would love to inform you that, as at the time of putting this piece together, two Ministers have “Disowned” the budget of their various ministries. The Minister of Education and the Minister of Health; the Minister of Education claimed not to be a part of the budget drafting process for his ministry and as such had no idea what its contents are. The Minister of Health on the other hand has pointed fingers at “rats,” which he says are responsible for “smuggling” items into the budget for his ministry. Let me also remind you that the President of this country delivered this same budget to the National Assembly with a wonderful speech, but as the days go by, it is very obvious that, the man 15 million Nigerians voted has no idea what is contained in his own budget.
The Federal Ministry of Works, Power and Housing has been described as a “Super ministry,” while its Minister has been described as a “Super Minister.” The crafters of both phrases did a great job creating them. Now, let us take a look at the “Super Pathetic” provisions contained in the budget for this ministry.

FEDERAL MINISTRY OF WORKS, POWER AND HOUSING

The Federal Ministry of Works, Power and Housing has a total budget of 467,645,043,369; 34,245,043,369 is for “Recurrent Expenditure,” while 433,400,000,000 is for “Capital Expenditure.”

Firstly, 409,670,000 will be spent on “Monitoring and Evaluation of Housing Projects.” This is the first item on the list and it is quite an expensive way to begin. 250,000,000 is for the “Operational Cost of Running the 37 Field Offices of the Ministry.”

319,860,612 is budgeted for the “Acquisition and Upgrading of Computer Software and ICT Equipment.”

2,515,013,517 is budgeted for “Payment of Local Contractors Debt and Failed Land Transactions.” I do not understand this particular provision—actually I do not understand from the “Failed Land Transactions” point. Is it that they plan to make huge payments for “Failed Land Transactions” or what? This needs clarification because it smells of graft.

1,630,000,000 is set aside for the “Construction and Furnishing of Ministerial Quarters (4-Bedroom Semi-detached Duplex with BQ and Other Ancillary Buildings and Services.” This particular provision has crossed the threshold of something being outrageously stupid. It is more of an insult to Nigerians. I am not wrong to believe that Ministers are paid housing allowance, and even at that, there still exists a 4,996,179 “Residential Rent” provision for the Minister in this year’s budget.

There is a 4,460,000 provision for the “Maintenance and Fuelling of Generators” under “Capital Expenditure.” If you scroll up to the “Recurrent Expenditure” part of the budget, there is a 9,649,935 provision for the same item. This is quite scandalous and suspicious no matter how you look at it.

One of the most pathetic, wasteful and irresponsible provisions I came across in the budget of the Federal Ministry of Works, Power and Housing is the 531,887,675 that is budgeted for “Attendance of Statutory & International Meetings on Housing & Development.” If you are finding it difficult to understand, I will summarise it for you: the Federal Ministry of Works, Power and Housing will spend 531,887,675 to attend “Meetings.” I do not know about you, but if the Minister of this Ministry is not meeting with Jesus Christ, then he should be fired as soon as possible. You cannot spend such a large amount on meetings when you can out-rightly use that amount to build affordable homes for the masses or spend it on some other useful provisions. It is a criminal way of spending money, and whoever is responsible for this particular provision should be treated as such.

919,621,146, this is what the Federal Ministry of Works, Power and Housing will spend on “Research and Development on Housing Matters.”  How on earth do you “Research” on “Housing Matters” with 919,621,146? Is this not brazen thievery? Is this not barefaced looting without the fear of God? The 2016 budget should be a case study of “How to get outrageously rich quick.” It is an insult on the sensibilities of the millions of illiterate people in Nigeria and also the literate ones.

1,143,575,058 is budgeted for the “Completion of Construction of a mausoleum and Library Complex in Honour of Late RT. Hon. Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe.” What I want you to know about this particular item is that, in the 2015 budget, 200,000,000 was budgeted for the same purpose. Apart from the 1,143,575,058 budgeted for this item in the 2016 budget, Another 137,552,031 will be spent on “Provision of Furnishings in the New Mausoleum and Library Complex in Honour of Late Rt. Hon. Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe.” Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe must be clapping in his grave for this Houdini-like stunt.

876,440,000 is budgeted for the “Furnishing of Federal Secretariat, Gombe.”

85,592,483 is budgeted for the “Construction of a Block of 3 Classrooms.” I do not know about you, but except the three classrooms will be equipped with the latest in Information Communication Technology, 85,592,483 is too much for it.

91,124,858 is budgeted for “Construction of Maternity Health Centre,” 40,181,895 is also budgeted for the “Completion of the Construction of Hospital.” 172,623,767 is budgeted for the “Construction of Skill Acquisition Centres (Type A),” 910,023,068 is budgeted for the “Construction/Provision of Housing Infrastructure,” 143,442,808 is budgeted for the “Electricity Supply and Installation of 500kva Transformer.” 186,543,000 is budgeted for “Provision of Solar Street Lights,” 36,066,503 is budgeted for “Construction/Provision of Electricity,” 50,110,269 is then budgeted for the “Construction of Sub Station and Installation of Equipment.”

The reason why I grouped all the items above together is that they have one thing in common. They do not say where the “Construction/Provisions” will take place. Items were just listed and millions appended to them. It will be impossible to verify, when the time comes, if these projects were actually executed or not. To me, this is just a way to divert money to personal bank accounts. If you want to “construct” a hospital, you should indicate where you plan to construct it, so we know where the money is going.

430,991,190 is budgeted for the “Construction of Infrastructure, Roads, Drainages and Asphalt Finishing,” 1,219,701,478 is budgeted for the “Completion of the On-going Construction of Roads, Drains and Culverts.” 582,151,577 is budgeted for “Construction of Access Roads and Drainages Linking and Within the Estate.” Just like the previous items, these items do not indicate a place. You want to build roads and culverts, where? You did not indicate. You want to construct access roads in an estate, where is this estate? You fail to indicate. It is quite obvious that the budget for the Federal Ministry of Works, Power and Housing was drafted to serve as a bank account for people at the helm of affairs in that ministry.

140,000,000 is budgeted for the “Construction of Solar Powered Borehole,” while 161,500,000 is budgeted for the “Construction of Motorised Borehole.” You remember the “Living waters” talked about in the bible, we are on the verge of making it flow in Nigeria.

385,448,590 is budgeted for “Provision of Solar Powered Boreholes, Construction of Asphalt Roads/Culverts/Drainage and Solar Powered Street Lights.” If you study this particular item properly, you will notice that it is nothing more than the combining the provisions we just discussed above, same provisions I talked about not indicating where they would be situated. What the drafters of this ministry simply did was to break down the items and append figures to the, then group them together again and append a bigger sum to it. This way, they look like different provisions and as such serve as a means for them to corruptly enrich themselves.

963,392,832 is budgeted for the “Generation of 10MW from Katsina Wind Farm,” while a separate 132,392,832 is also budgeted for the same item. Why is this particular item duplicated? It looks duplicitous, to be honest.

The people at the Federal Ministry of Works, Power and Housing are not done with duplicating items and playing on the intelligence of Nigerians.  750,000,000 is budgeted for the “Generation of 700MW from Zungeru Hydropower Project,” while 113,465,000, 139,426,180, 126,624,383, 93,767,500, 160,000,000 were also budgeted for the same item. To summarise, the “Generation of 700MW from Zungeru Hydropower Project” has six different provisions and allocations. Why? I have no idea.

2,000,000,000 is what the Federal Ministry of Works, Power and Housing will spend on “Planning and Development Including Weigh Bridges, Roads, Furniture and Hosting of Transahara activities.”

2,000,000,000 is budgeted for the “Maintenance and Construction of Bridges Nationwide,” but one can still find provisions for the “Construction” or “Rehabilitation” of different bridges in the budget.

634,979,698 is budgeted for the “Coal to Power Generation Development in Nigeria in Enugu and Gombe/Benue/Kogi.” If you are vigilant enough, you will notice that there exists another 72,000,000 allocation for this same item. This goes a long way to show that the 2016 budget is a feast for criminals and corrupt public office holders; the common man was not factored in.

163,596,000 is budgeted for the “Gathering of Stakeholders to Promote Collaboration and Consultations Among Governments Relevant Agencies.” What I want to suggest at this juncture, is that, after the “Gathering” and spending of the 163,596,000, every member of that “Gathering” should be ushered into one cell in Kuje Prison. Anything short of this, then such expensive gathering should not be allowed to hold.

“Pre-Qualification” has an allocation of 95,000,000. What “Pre-Qualification” are we talking about here?

40,430,000 is budgeted for “Sustenance of Effective Budgeting System,” while 18,000,000 and 33,280,000 are also separately allocated for the same item. Can you see how embarrassing our National budget is?

316,680,000 is budgeted for the “Hiring of Consultants.” The funny thing is that, there  are other provisions and allocations for “Consultants” for different purposes in the budget.

The Federal Ministry of Works, Power and Housing will spend 6,159,954,143 on the “Construction/Provision of Office Buildings” and 4,154,906,188 on “Research and Development.” You can judge for yourself.

N40, Forty Naira, that is the amount budgeted for the “Rural Electrification of Umuezeala-Nsu, Ehime Mbano LGA, Imo” by the National Rural Electrification Agency.

I do not understand why the Electricity Management Services Limited will have a provision for “Procurement of Hospital Equipment for Abuja Clinic and Trauma Centre.” That being said, 42,392,000 is budgeted for said item.

In 2014, the National Power Training Institute budgeted 87,000,000 for the “Construction/Provision of Office Buildings,” while in the 2016 budget, the allocation increased by over 300% to 266,340,000. What happened in two years? How is it possible that the National Power Training Institute suddenly needs more office buildings that will gulp 266,340,000 all in the space of two years?

The National Power Training Institute also went on to budget 261,048,400 for “Administration and Coordination.” They were not administrating or coordinating before now? Or they need money to do that? I do not have much to say.

The Transmission Company of Nigeria budgeted 551,571,980 for “Port Clearing Charges for Transmission Project Equipment and Materials.” Further scrutiny will reveal a separate 2,757,859,901 for the same item.

1,034,197,463 is budgeted for the “Configuration, Updating and Administration of the SCADA Database to Capture Upgrades in 330kv and 132kv Transmission Substations and Extension of SCADA Signals from the Switchyard to the Control Room as well as from the Control Panel to the RTU to Link up With the NCC SCADA Database.” Scrutinise further and you will find another 206,839,493 for the same item.

The Transmission Company of Nigeria budgeted 276,130,723 for the “Procurement of Automated Synchronizing Systems.” Due diligence will also reveal that 344,732,488 and 344,732,488 are also allocated to this same item, separately.

1,034,197,463 is budgeted by the Transmission Company of Nigeria for “Supply Of Remote Terminal Unit, Telecontrol Interface, Control Centre Equipment, Maintenance/Restoration / Repairs By Technical/Industry SCADA Experts And Capacity Building For SCADA Engineers.” Look deeper and you will find that a separate 172,366,244 is budgeted for the same item.

Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading PLC will spend 701,897,561 on “Monitoring and Coordination of Bulk Electricity Matters.”

The Federal Road Maintenance Agency will spend 242,300,000 to “Purchase Computers.” As you already know, this provision is more than what the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology will spend on the same item. They also budgeted 1,502,319,995 for the “Construction/Provision of Office Buildings” and 374,339,506 for the “Repair/Rehabilitation of Office Buildings.”

150,000,000 is budgeted for “Growing Girls and Women Project GWIN.” I do not know what the provision means, but I am yet to understand what concerns the Federal Road Maintenance Agency with a project for females, unless the women are somehow involved in the maintenance of our roads.

699,799,511 is budgeted for “Administration and Coordination.” Another means of wastefully and corruptly spending money.

The Federal Road Maintenance Agency budgeted 550,000,000 for “Monitoring Materials.”

35,980,000 is budgeted for “Cables and Accessories.” Take a look deeper and you will find another 70,880,000 meant for “Cables and Accessories.”

48,000,000 is budgeted for “Power Supply and Control,” while there is another 133,875,000 for “Power Supply and Control.”

There are five provisions for “Energy and Supply” in the budget of the Federal Road Maintenance Agency. 40,000,000, 131,250,000, 158,455,934, 264,860,000, 234,200,000 are the different allocations given to “Energy and Supply.” Why is this item duplicated?

81,770,000 is budgeted for “Lighting Fittings and Accessories.”  209,660,000 and 203,993,088 are also budgeted for the same “Lighting Fittings and Accessories.”

The Council for the Regulation of Engineers in Nigeria budgeted 226,212,759 for “Administrative and Coordination.” I do not know what it means, but from what I have seen thus far, it is a waste of funds.

We have come to the end of the fifteenth part of my budget analysis series. What I can say about the budget of the Federal Ministry of Works, Power and Housing is that, it is a “Super ministry,” with a “Super minister,” and is “superbly fraudulent.”

This is arguably the most graft prone budget I have seen since I began analysing the budget. It gets to a point where you begin to wonder if what we have is a budget or a Ponzi scheme.

The in-between for today is: 200,000,000, that is the amount budgeted by the Federal Ministry of Energy (Petroleum Resources) for the “Passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill.” If you are wondering how you spend money to pass a bill, the only explanation I can give is bribing the National Assembly. Have a wonderful day!

I am on Twitter @Saatah